Charity
Southill teens complete Mindout Mental Health Awareness Programme
Wednesday 1st April 12 young people aged 15-19 years from Southill Club2gether Youth Project based in Southill Area Centre completed a 12 week Mindout Mental Health Awareness Programme.
The group engaged strongly in communication exercises, moving debates, team building activities and discussions for ninety minutes each week centred around the topic of Mental Health and wellbeing. The aim of the programme is to support young people to take a positive approach to understanding their emotional and social health. The weekly sessions present a wide and varied range of strategies available to young people to cope with stressful or challenging situations from personal coping skills to informal networks of support to professional or voluntary support services.
During the final session the group of 5 boys and 7 girls had the chance to listen to a presentation by Michelle O’ Connor from My Mind Counselling service which set up business in Limerick in 2014. Michelle outlined the range of affordable supports available to young people in the city and congratulated the group on the completion of their programme.
The highlight of the evening was a short presentation from Katie Whelan well known for founding ‘Lisa’s Light’, Katie spoke about her experience of losing her cousin Lisa to suicide and how by throwing herself into the campaign gave her a sense of purpose and has led her on her own personal wellness journey in dealing with the pain of Lisa’s loss. Katie was very impressed by the group saying “it was a pleasure to be invited to present the certificates, the group were so welcoming and it’s great to see other people my age learning coping skills and techniques for looking after themselves, I can’t wait to find out more about the programme”.
The programme was facilitated weekly by Greg, Cathal and Iona from Southill Club2gether Youth Project. Thanks to Daniel Butler Northside DEPS, My Mind Counselling and Katie Whelan for their support.
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